If you don't like laughter, skip this post.
I like when people are friends. I liked when Chris Hardwick became friends when Craig Ferguson (that's a way of saying it, right? Hahaha!), I like the whole Beat Generation circle, heck I LOVE that Elton John was on a Kanye West song!
So when I saw an article about the joke-thieving "beef" between Louis C.K. and Dane Cook, I was kind of disappointed. I'd not heard heard of any beef between Louie & Dane, but I had been noticing lately quite a few people, I don't want to say, "ganging up," but saying stuff about Cook.
There was that Family Guy bit; I heard a local radio DJ speaking to Dane Cook getting into something with Kyle Cease. Of course, freakin bandwagon shock jock is just, "O, I'm a large farthead who has never heard of Kyle Cease and Dane Cook is a big sell man. HA HO HUM! This Kyle Cease must be a ******* unfunny, delusional **** even though I probably am too much of a loser myself to research what I am talking about in a public forum and is passing judgment on someone I've never heard before. I'm risque.~"
~He speaks in asterisks because he is a shock jock~
I think Kyle Cease is hilarious, so being strangely angered and that I hate talking on the radio, I didn't listen to that interview. I did listen to Marc Maron's WTF podcast with Steve Byrne, whom I also love, where it was brought up that in a previous WTF show with Dane Cook something going on between them. I'm fairly sure Dane Cook never said, "Steve Byrne is stealing my essence," but the term "essence" might have been used and Marc took that phrase and ran. Thanks, Marc. I'll be taking that from you.
I hadn't really any leaning towards Dane, although Meg can probably call me out on my hipstronic tendencies since I remember a certain "A:F6" discussion. Somebody wrote in the comments of the article, "And the pickles!!! And the pickles!!!" and I burst out laughing. I don't even remember setup for that joke, but I can hear the exact way that line is said.
I caught a second of his special, Vicious Circle, that happened to be on to form an opinion. His material is more crass than I remember. That might have been this particular special, or perhaps I've Full House-Saget'ed him, but I could see why someone had commented about not liking his "frat-boy-arena" humor or his crowd. I'm going to look like a douche for saying this, but it just seemed like there were people in that audience that would be exactly like the stupid shock jock: they wouldn't know the first thing about comedy, but EFF YOU if you don't like this latest craze that they do. IT IS THE ONE AND TRUE MESSIAH.
It's like, obviously there's nothing wrong if you want to surgically replace your hand with a Hamburger Helper glove because you love it so much, but I kind of feel like your opinion has no standing if you only eat Hamburger Helper. You need to experience linguini and pastramis... and other foods (why did I make this a culinary metaphor?) before you go around chopping other peoples' hands off.
And thus, the maniacal Dr. Hamburger was born.
I just think it's crazy that Dane Cook blew up that way that he did when so many comedians spend their whole lives trying to make a living, and there just happens to be this backlash against him. Upon seeing performances of him and Kyle Cease so close together, I can see where, if you like one, you may like the other, but Louis C.K. and Steve Byrne? As this dude said, talking about similar experiences isn't stealing, especially if you like another guy's work and are inspired or influenced by him. He took it back to Steve Martin! The sound clip got taken down, and I was like, "I got this, I got this. :Breaks out record:"
On the latest episode of Louie's show, he and Cook approach this, and I've read a lot of praise about it. I applaud their maturity.
ETA: Steve Byrne just tweeted about how he and Cook have had some bumps, but they recently spoke and now he has the utmost respect for him.